COVID and going back to school – making it safe to learn again

Opening schools after coronavirus lockdown is currently a work in progress. As a school head or leader, you might be feeling a little left at sea by the current advice.

But it seems increasingly likely that the UK government will be expecting schools in England to be ready to open in full when the new year starts in September.

That means it’s time to think about what being prepared means.

And when it comes to getting your school ready to reopen after COVID-19 lockdown, Fantastic Services has got everything you need to get that much-needed “A” on preparedness:

COVID cleaning for schools and nurseries

We’ve already been hard at work providing a variety of specialist cleaning services for colleges, schools and nurseries.

Here’s a little snapshot of how easy preparing your school for opening in September could be:

…plus all the usual work you need to do

Of course, there’s a lot more work you might need to do to ready your school to open its doors again.

We can help you move or store furniture, call in our painting and decorating specialists or even remove waste and rubbish as you make more space available.

COVID-19 classroom rearrangement

Get ready to meet all those social distancing rules. To see how our moving and storage service can help your facility rearrange what’s needed, visit this page.

Painting and decorating

Refresh and brighten up any part of your school with our painting and decorating service.

Waste removal

Safely say goodbye to any kind of waste. Let the waste removal specialists take care of everything that needs to be thrown away.

Schools and education – what is being done?

Before closing for summer, schools in England were asked to be open for nursery, reception and years 1 and 6. They were also asked to have places for the children of key workers or vulnerable children. That meant being able to implement:

Here is the current guidance for teachers, school leaders and parents.

What does the government say?

The UK government is currently saying that all schools are expected to open in England as of the Autumn term.

They have made some suggestions for how this can work, given the almost certain need to maintain social distancing guidelines in an environment where this will be very challenging indeed:

1. “Protective bubbles” for groups of pupils
2. Altering the classroom layout as much as possible to facilitate social distancing
3. Instituting hand-washing policies
4. Frequently cleaning surfaces which often get touched
5. More intensive school cleaning

But, of course, there are numerous other recommendations and suggestions. You can find the current official guidelines here.

What do teachers and school leaders say?

The government originally wanted schools to reopen in June. This was widely described as “impossible” by many school leaders.

A sense that the government is asking for things which are simply incompatible with the reality of running a school seems to persist. Despite the desire of teachers to get back to educating their students and the extra months available to prepare.

What do the experts say?

The government is sticking to its “supported by the science” line. But “independent Sage” (a group of former members of the government’s official scientific advisory group) said that actual test and trace measures and certainty of low community infection rates really need to be in place before schools reopen. Hopefully, come September, they will be.

Opening schools after coronavirus lockdown

Fantastic Services has developed a range of services ideal for disinfection and coronavirus cleaning in all educational and childcare organisations. Everything you need to get ready to open again come September:

COVID-19 antiviral school cleaning

An intensive antiviral clean for all parts of your school.

COVID-19 school carpet cleaning

Clean carpets and other viral breeding grounds with our specialised carpet cleaning done using Hot Water Extraction.

Image source: Depositphotos/ ArturVerkhovetskiy